


Interstitial Spaces

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: The Travel Collection: Drabbles, Snippets, and Supershorts [13]
Category: Babylon 5, Highlander
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, F/M, GFY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-23
Updated: 2013-10-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 17:19:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/814046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The planet she's brought him to is interesting, and by that, Marcus means he likes it because Susan is on it, and not because he enjoys trees and river-life that will eat him if given a chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crocodile Fish

**Author's Note:**

> Snippets and supershorts written in the same universe as "Caught Between", an unfinished story with an Immortal Ivanova (Katherine in the episode "Two of Hearts") and her quest to repay Marcus for saving that lifetime.

Spring where Susan - no matter what name she's had or takes, she'll always be Susan to him - has made her home brings torrential rains that melt the snows that blanket the mountains, and send it all flooding down the narrow valleys. The house is far enough up the slope to avoid being flooded out, and dug deeply enough into the rock not to be swept down the slope in a mudslide. It's perhaps the only good thing Marcus can say about spring on this planet, in this place.

"It could be worse." Susan is sitting next to the stove, where it's warmest, while he's looking out the window at another gray day. "I could have settled on land down on the plain."

"Worse?" Marcus turns, raising an eyebrow. He could imagine something of what worse could mean, but he wants to hear her talking. Since he's woken up, he's wanted to listen to her, almost as much as he wants to tell her, every moment, how much he loves her.

"Marshes and mosquitoes. Houses on stilts to avoid being flooded out. Crocodile-like fish that like to eat people." Susan has a completely straight face, and Marcus isn't certain if she's joking or not. He'll err on the side of not, because being eaten by a fish after he's been brought back from the dead once? Embarrassing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "rain".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [A Misty Veil](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/1276502).


	2. Simple Things

There are trees on the slope above the house, trees across the narrow, steep-sided valley that the house is built in, trees whose tops he can see over going down to the edge of the bare-rock gorge that holds the river below. Trees that are, to the best of his ability to tell, taller than he is, with a trail that switchbacks down between them to the gorge, and up the gentler slope to the top of the hills.

Susan goes up every morning, and when he's followed her, she's practicing with a blade that's as long as her arm, and wide as her hand. He's watched her tend to it when she comes back down, the edge wickedly sharp and steel flexible as it is strong. Marcus wonders some at that, but he doesn't ask, letting her have her secrets.

He makes use of the same grassy meadow she does, katas that he learned from the Minbari, his pike whistling sharply through the air. The summer weather is gentler than the spring, everything bright and warm without being too hot or too dry, and he revels in being able to enjoy such a simple thing.

Sometimes, they take dinner up to the meadow, and watch the stars appear as the sun sets, fingers tangled together. Make love on the blanket spread to keep them off the grass, and sleep curled around each other to wake with dew damp on their skin. A simple life, hidden in the mountains, safe from whatever is happening in the rest of the universe.

He enjoys it, but sometimes wonders if he won't get restless, won't want to return to the rest of the universe, to fight against whatever evils may have sprung up while he slept. Susan, too, he thinks will want to do as much eventually. And they will, but not yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "tree".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [Branching From the Center](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/1539051).


	3. Wet Wool

Clouds rise against the mountains, turning the day foggy, and then rainy, as summer is cooling into autumn. Marcus shakes water droplets from his hair as he carries in the slightly-damp laundry they'd been attempting to dry before the weather got wet. They'll build a fire on the hearth, and hang the clothes in front of it to dry, though that will leave the house humid and smelling of damp wool.

"Did they dry enough to actually put away?" Susan is oiling the sword she practices with, the care a daily ritual he respects - had volunteered to bring in the laundry as not to interrupt.

"Unfortunately not." Marcus sets the basket on an empty chair, and moves toward the hearth, smiling, while Susan groans, and mutters something about the universe laughing at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "Cloud".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [Storms and Sunsets](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/1848918).


	4. Rambling

It feels like someone has punched him in the chest, though Marcus thinks that's because someone had. Or rather, had punched a hole through his chest. He shouldn't be able to come back from that, shouldn't be alive.

"You're talking out loud, Marcus. And rambling." Susan isn't even looking up from her careful examination of her sword. "And it's all your fault you're back from the dead, you know. If you hadn't used that machine the first time, this wouldn't have happened."

"But then I'd be dead, and I wouldn't be able to have this conversation with you." Marcus doesn't regret what he's done, can't regret what he's done. Even if he doesn't spend forever with Susan - and that, for all his romantic notions, is suddenly seeming a little daunting - he will have the chance to do everything he ever wanted.

"Including shut up, instead of telling me everything you're thinking?" Susan is starting to look worried, as well as annoyed. "I know truth serums don't work on Immortals."

That is actually rather worrying. Marcus frowns, trying to think of nothing, reaching for the training he'd had in meditation.

"If meditation doesn't work, there's always trying a more physical sort of meditation. You need to learn how to use a sword, since we know you're not really mortal any more." Susan looks over at him finally, meeting his gaze. "You're not really Immortal, though. Not the same way I am, and every other Immortal I've met is."

He's always done better with physical activity than with trying to sit still and meditate. Marcus gives Susan a smile. "Let's just try the swords, shall we?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "Hollow".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [Lost Deeps](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/2020100).


End file.
